Chapter 14 - The General's Verdict“Thunderbird, this is Apex Two—Sarah Miller,” I spoke quickly into the microphone. “I am with Daniel Hayes. We are at a forward staging point. We have the raw flight recorder data from Ethan’s jet.”
A long pause hung over the radio frequency, heavy with twelve years of unspoken history.
“Sarah...” Cole’s voice was tense. “Where the hell have you been? Vance’s office issued an active federal warrant for both of you two hours ago. They’re claiming Lieutenant Hayes stole classified hardware and that you crashed a corporate jet over the Pacific.”
“We didn't crash, General,” I said fiercely. “Vance’s people tried to remote-kill our fly-by-wire system, just like they did to Ethan twelve years ago and just like they did to Flight 229 yesterday over Missouri.”
“What are you talking about?” Cole demanded.
“The project is called Trident Watch,” Daniel stepped up to the microphone, his voice cutting through the speaker with precision. “It’s an offensive cyber-warfare suite capable of spoofing aircraft control surfaces through satellite data links. My father found it during a live sea test. Vance ordered him cut off to protect the defense contract.”
Silence reigned over the HF radio channel for nearly a minute.
“Do you have hard proof, Lieutenant?” Cole finally asked, his voice dead serious. “Not theories. Hard encryption keys.”
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“I have the raw system handshake recorded by my father’s ejection seat telemetry unit,” Daniel answered. “It contains General Vance’s digital signature authorising the signal override.”
“Listen to me very carefully, both of you,” Cole commanded. “Midway is not safe. Vance knows every legacy frequency in the Pacific. He’s already dispatched a Joint Special Operations recovery team from Guam to secure the wreckage of your Gulfstream. They will be on your location within ninety minutes.”
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